Nearly 200 countries at the United Nations COP28 climate talks in Dubai reached agreement Wednesday to begin transitioning away from fossil fuels, an unprecedented deal meant to facilitate the goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“We have language on fossil fuels in our final agreement for the first time ever,” COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber said Wednesday after leaders wrapped a final night of negotiations, which stretched more than 24 hours beyond the scheduled end date for the summit. “We have set the world in the right direction," al-Jaber said.
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The new agreement asks countries to set “ambitious, economy-wide” emissions reductions goals by 2025 for all greenhouse gases that align with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 C compared to pre-industrial levels, and reaching net-zero emissions by 2050.
The text states that countries must reduce the use of fossil fuels “in a just, orderly and equitable manner" and while taking into account the “different national circumstances” of smaller or underdeveloped nations.
The text comes after days of intense and protracted negotiations over the draft COP28 agreement —which had pitted the U.S., EU, and other Western allies against OPEC+ producers led by Saudi Arabia, who insisted that the language be softened.
U.S. and EU leaders said the deal still falls short of some of their more ambitious goals, including calling for the direct phase-out of fossil fuels.
Though the text asks countries to set “ambitious, economy-wide” emissions reduction goals within the next two years for all greenhouse gases in order to comply with the global 1.5 C warming target, it also includes text further down in the document that acknowledges the use of fossil fuels to “play a role in help facilitating the energy transition while ensuring energy security.”
Many parties "would have liked clearer language" on fossil fuels,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said after negotiations wrapped.
Still, he said, “This document sends very strong messages to the world.”
“This is much stronger and clearer as a call” for limiting global warming to the 1.5C target “than we have ever heard before,” he said.
Others echoed this assessment.
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“Humanity has finally done what is long, long, long overdue,” the European Union's commissioner for climate action, Wopke Hoekstra, said at the end of the summit.